Last Breakfast

You might know...I have tried everywhere on the Road for coffee.. and this am, not only did I find the best (in a mug) coffee..but the most beautiful woman that I have seen. I did not take a picture of her since she was still very shy. I had OJ and a roll.. happy bonny starting off this am. I went back to the room early last night and read the Bangkok novel. It is not "my kind of reading"... lord I sound like my Mom ... I gave her some pretty heavy black lit one year and she returned it with those very remarks. Anyway.. I read.. and also listened.. there was a singer.. (not the boom boom noise of rm 503) but a person who was using some variation in his voice with English words that someone paid him to do .. and he called himself a singer. One of the problems I have with hearing is .. I can only hear out of one side... but one of the problems I also have is that having played the violin for 8 years.. I have very good pitch.. Mr. Wobblier did not. So.. I turned off the light and went back to my audio book book of my teacher. I have been giving some real thought to control. Living in this developing country with much fewer Am than usual, I am fairly isolated. The services people guess when you order Chaing bear..and they know it is chung.. etc. But last night in the Tuk tuk... I was very relaxed.. very at ease... I bet my heart rate did not miss a beat.. While it was my life that I thought might be lost or maimed, there was little I could do about it. We can only make choices when we have choices .. educated guesses- I guess that is the free will part. but we never can see the whole picture so we are not in "control". We grow up with a set of conditioning that tells us how to act and what to do.. and in our culture.. how to do it .. the "right way" - much of it is egosentric conditioning. Is there a right way? When I was young.. catholics could not be cremated.. then they ran out of room to bury in Rome. so they creamated and it was ok... I am happy that I live the life I live and try to follow the Precepts.. it is simple.. don't take a life, don't steal, don't lie.. don't get intoxicated, don't use sex indiscriminately. As you expand that.. you get more complicated.. like don't steal someone's time and effort.. etc.. but it is really just that.. tend to your own business. Watch what you are doing.. and don't put too much of the cultural.. this is the way.. that is not the way.. you are too this or that. Advise.. is rarely wanted or needed but given so freely by everyone with an opinion. Maybe that is the rub.. if we are just watching.. just observing.. there is no room to judge. I want to learn not to intervene.. you know.. if you put the juice in plastic cups.. you could set it down.. well if you serve it in a plastic bag.. you can hang it.. carry it on your scooter.. etc.. is there a right way? a situational way? Well...give a choice.. but keep the price the same etc etc. does this make for complications or simplicity.. Everyone spends much time trying to make someone into some mold.. cookie cutters of what and how we should be.. rather than .. go .. don't kill, steal, lie.. but have compassion for yourself.. live mindfully.. and observe. The more I smile to people.. the more they smile back.. the more I try to say please and thank you.. from my heart.. the more it is heard... simple.. I love the honesty of most of the gypsies that I travelled with..and the fresh openness and humor. I was so happy to spend most of the journey with folks with integrity.. a rare pleasure. I have given an animal name to each person on the trip.. and when I write my post script.. I will add a line or two about each.. you are each important to the journey. I am off to the boat and Chinatown. The some r&r in the park.. a meditation in a Wat.. pick up the glasses.. get back here for the bus..and the airport.. I will post once more time tonight.. for now.. bye for now.. Sawatee Ka . b.